Community Brag Posts

Grabbed some pallets from a local tool shop which they were going to send to the landfill. Built us a pallet bench. We use it all the time. Very easy and fast to make. Just stacking like building blocks! Best part was it didn't cost a thing! Just a couple of screws and glue. Reduce, reuse, recycle, reclaim! You can do it too!

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This was made for a friend that wanted to cover a gas meter on the side of their house by their outdoor eating area. I built it counter-top high, with a faux hutch for the back. I really like the way it turned out, it covers the wall and works for serving food on all while looking great. I included a before picture and a picture of the table on its own.

I build these from the plan for Heavy Duty Sawhorses. I preferred these for the thickness to match my butcher block desktop. 

I decided to give this a go after checking out the plans months before, and my kitchen table/floor and my foyer became my workshop and assembly area, and my dogs were absolute angels letting me do the work. This table completely transformed my living room from what it was before. I think it took me a total of two weeks to complete this table, after work and during the weekends.

My brother announced a few weeks ago that he was going to be on the search for a new Golden Retriever puppy. Well the hunt is over and he gets to bring the puppy home today. I decided to make the puppy a "Welcome to the family" toy box. I wanted to paint it but was out voted by my kids. They liked the natural pine look, but I felt it needed a little something more. Therefore, a couple of days ago I purchased letters at Hobby Lobby, painted them and nailed them to the front of the crate from the inside out.

My sons and I also got the puppy some new toys to put in the box. We get to deliver it to her tonight. Can't wait to meet her! I posted a picture of the puppy at the bottom of this post. Isn't she cute?

I made this table because I have a very small house and needed a table that was more of a compact size. This table was perfect for that. I also love the farmhouse style. Originally, I didn't realize how much my screws were going to show on the outside, but I actually like how it looks, with the mix of hardware and wood. This table is very heavy and thankfully ended up sturdy! I used a compound miter saw (which I LOVE!) to cut the wood for this project which made it a lot faster than cutting with my jigsaw like I started out with. I bought the wood from home depot, and it took about a whole afternoon to cut the wood, sand, and construct and then about 2 more hours to stain and put the polycyrlic coats on. I did have a little trouble getting the legs on by myself since I had to hold them in place while I was screwing them on, and it was awkward and more difficult than if I had someone to help me hold them while screwing them on. But overall, not too difficult and love how it turned out!

Modifications adopted from two other posters.

This table is pretty easy to build, i added a couple inches the the 4x4 for height but tested it yourself before following their height and see if you can sit under it with a chair 

My husband modified the Simple Bunk Bed plan by Margjack and built this bed on weekends over the last month. He first built the four head boards and then went on to design his own railing and ladder. I liked how Margjack created more height and identical beds, especially if/when we use them as individual beds instead of a bunk bed.

After priming and painting all pieces, we assembled the bed in our sons' bedroom. A slide show of the assembly can be found at:

http://vimeo.com/27997563

After looking through Ana's plants for months (MONTHS), I finally decided to tackle a project that I desperately needed: a kitchen island. I have almost no counter space in my kitchen and couldn't bring myself to spend the money to put in a new set of lower cabinets or a kitchen island at the size I was looking for.

I found the door for just $20 at a local junkfest and debated turning it into a dining table or an island. I finally settled on island and took to stripping off the layers and layers of paint and stain. I modified the Gaby Kitchen Island plans to fit my nearly 8-foot door, and decided not to recess the 2x4 shelf supports (mainly because I didn't have a saw). However, I did buy a mini-Kreg jig and am shocked at how easy it was to use, and how great the seams look.

I had all of the wood cut to length by the lumber yard, so that saved me a bit of time, and no one charged me a cent to do all the cutting. And if you can believe it, everything was square!

For the legs, I used Minwax Wood Finish in Red Oak. I chose not to stain the top because I loved the color of the natural wood and wanted to see all the little flaws and defects. I then used 2 coats of Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane in Gloss on the top, and in Satin on the legs.

Finally, to add some support (the door is VERY heavy), I used L-brackets to attach the door to the frame.

Although I didn't use a plan from this site, I do have Ana to thank for giving me the confidence to go alone and build this from a drawing that my wife drew up. All of my previous builds were from plans on this site so to make this from scratch without any help makes this my favourite build to date.

Table

Top: 2x12s

Aprons: 2x6s. Trim purchased from Lowes

Legs: Purchased from Lowes

Fake drawers: 1x4 ripped to size. Knobs purchased from Lowes

Bench

Top: 2x12

End sections: 1x10 (may replace with 2x10)

Aprons: 2x4

Chairs were purchased separately. (I'm not that confident yet)

I made the back the same as the sides, the top has router edge and the drawer has a front that was routered.

Prior to this my only experience with any power tools was wood shop in middle school and to my recollection I don't think we ever used them.
My daughter really wanted a "big girl bed" that was off the floor. I needed more storage in her room, so the steps seemed like a great idea & her kitchen set is huge so putting it under the bed would give it a place. So I proposed to my husband that he could buy all the power tools he wanted if he would teach me to use them & help me build the bed. He also added that we should use the old ikea loft bed thats been collecting dust for over 5 years & we started.
We altered the plans so that the steps are free standing with only the top step bolted into the bed and each smaller step bolted into the larger one it is next to. The top step unlike the others isn't a flip top but a closet for all the dress up to stay in.
I admit I can not give a time frame for this project we started building at the beginning of the summer but things kept coming up so the steps spent most of their time collecting dust.
This past weekend we decided it needed to get done before the first day of school so we painted and bolted the steps which took about two days (because the paint needed some time to dry). We tackled the new railing rather quickly labor day morning when the hubby brought a piece of an shelving unit that has never been used out of the garage and showed me how perfect it would be for the new railing. He cut it to size then we bought a 12ft piece of poplar to fit into the precut groves in the unit for the slats. We used plastic screw pieces (sorry I have no clue what they were called) in the predrilled shelving unit holes to hold the slats in place. We screwed the new railing into the preexisting bed, hung some ikea flower lights and the wall and we were done.

My husband asked me to make a desk or table for a new co-worker at his office. Of course I started browsing Ana's plans. I came across this Ikea knock off table and thought the design was simple. He also wanted me to make a bench seat. But really, how many adults like to sit together on one bench? So I made two little benches of the same design as the table. I changed the plans up a bit to make it smaller and did not put in a drawer. But overall I was very happy with how it turned out. One major thing I learned on this project is that you have to be careful with products that claim they are stainable which really are not. I used some Elmer's wood filler on the first version of the table top to fix up the knots in the wood. I sanded it down and then applied the stain. Huge mistake. The wood filler did not take the stain even though the tube and the elmer's website claim it will. So I had to scrap that top and start over. Second time I decided to leave the knots as they were hoping the poly would fill them in a bit. It did fine.

I ripped down my 2x4's to 3 inches to get the squared corner look of the design. I used 1x4's for the apron and 1x6's for the top. Final measurement was 48 inches long, 22 inches wide and about 31 inches high. Bench was 18 inches long, 14.5 inches wide and just over 17 inches tall. Bench seat was 2 pieces of 1x6 with a 1x4 in the middle. I used only pocket hole screws and wood glue for the table (2.5 inch on legs 1.25 inch on apron and top, holes under the short bottom 2x4 piece and to attach the apron to legs and top to apron) For the bench I used pocket holes and screws for the frame but had to use finishing nails and glue to secure the top to the bench. (again, had to play with the wood filler mess.)

This was my first build, and the instructions were great. I ended building two of them for our porch. The strength of the chairs following the plans is perfectly fine. We have used them every day for the past 6 months and have had no problems. The base cushions were re-claimed from an old couch someone was throwing away. We ripped the old covers off, and my girlfriends mother sewed $9.00 shower curtains over top of them. (Purchased at walmart) The backs are just 4 inch foam purchased from Hobby Lobby. The stain was "blue jean". We love these chairs. Thanks Ana.

I made this bed from Ana's http://www.ana-white.com/2011/09/farmhouse-storage-bed-storage-drawers.

We have an abundance of Ash wood here (result of Emerald Ash Borer). Although the bed is very heavy, it'll sure last! I made a few changes from Ana's plans only as I had dovetail jig etc for drawers.